Combat Wounded Soldiers Ripped Off In Tax Sham

Wounded Soldiers

Benjamin KrauseA recent investigation shows the Pentagon ripped off wounded soldiers through a repayment scheme to a tune of $78 million over the past 25 years.

Lawmakers were shocked to learn the Department of Defense had knowingly withheld tax payments from the disability payments paid to wounded soldiers on their way out of the military. Federal law prohibited the practice, but the DOD victimized at least 13,000 disabled soldiers through its withholding policy.

According to Stars and Stripes:


The National Veterans Legal Services Program (NVLSP), a nonprofit that represents disabled veterans against the government, uncovered the scam. NVLSP presented the problem to lawmakers who promised to take action this year.

NVLSP attorney Tom Moore said:


Legislation is now in the works to return the money, but how many lives were ruined in the process?

One Army veteran, Brandon Davis, was wounded in Iraq. He left the service in 2005 but was hit by around $8,000 because of the DOD sham.

Commenting on the DOD sham, Davis said, “This money would have helped me and my family as we adjusted to life after being discharged from the military.”

Senator Mark Warner, one of the lawmakers taking action, stated, “It’s unbelievable that Congress has to act in order to ensure that the law is followed and that veterans who have already sacrificed so much receive every penny of their severance.”

The problem American taxpayers see time and again is the Federal government knowingly ignoring the law to the disadvantage of Average Joe types.

How is it that DOD leaders with knowledge of this are not prosecuted for violating the law? I have no idea how Federal employees can create policies that violate Federal law that harm veterans or other Americans without penalty or prosecution.

More and more, I am convinced we live in a country that is no longer the land of the free. Instead, American taxpayers are apparently funding a governmental system that costs more than it delivers and penalizes its citizens who follow the law.

Those who adhere to the law and live modest lives are penalized by scams like this perpetrated the DOD withholding policy. But those who implement such policies or ignore their unrealized implications evade liability.

When will we finally prosecute Federal executives who knowingly violate the law through illegal policies or behavior?

Source: https://www.stripes.com/news/pentagon-erroneously-withheld-78-million-from-injured-veterans-over-25-years-1.399795




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20 thoughts on “Combat Wounded Soldiers Ripped Off In Tax Sham”

  1. Edward J. Blassingame Sr

    They need to look at history the most war machine of its day the Roman army began abusing its soldiers in the end to the point they began losing their motivation and drive DOD VA a vet can’t win.

  2. Just wondering who we contact about this if you were affected by it. As i was a comabt retired medically injured and they took over 6000 in taxes and i have the les to prove it?

  3. @91Veteran, namnibor, Dina & all brothers and sisters!

    The next movie D’Sousa is putting out, “2016 – Hillary’s America”, concerns the Democratic Party.

    If your unaware about this ruthless, power hungry, group. It begun, in earnest, during and right after the Civil War. They, “…disenfranchised the Republican Party…” to the same level as that “…of the (newly Freed) Slaves!” (source: “The American Civil War”)!
    Basically only allowing the “Republicans the same 2/3rd voting status!”
    Since then few have been able to strip their power away. It’s been tried. Yet, they’ve always been able to regain their “seats”!
    Therefore, both parties throughout the many decades decided to merge. Throughout the 20th century, they started to become one party! Now, in the 21st century they’ve become even more blatantly corrupt, as their power, ($$$$$), has gone unchecked and uncontested.

    Y’all have heard the ‘expression’ of “…life swings like a pendulum do!”?
    Well, that’s what’s, again, happening today. The Democratic and Republican Parties are again being attacked by “We the People!” and one MAN! Their “foot-hold in the political arena” is being challenged. Their “power” is being challenged. Their “status quo” is starting to crumble. Their losing, not only their battles, but their war!

    I will be honest here. I’m for Mr. Trump. He’s been attacking the corruption of both parties! His (negative) statements about illegal immigrants, the wall, unvetted refugees, NAFTA, BLM’s (Bureau’s of Land Management’s), TTP, NATO and many other taxpayer funded government entities, and/or agencies, (government AND civilian), have been proven 100% correct. He “takes heat” for speaking out on what many Americans think! Then his opponents copy His agendas to a “T”!
    His ‘stance’ on “Political Correctness” is also 100% correct. Reference; the San Bernardino, California “massacre of innocent lives” is proof positive PC DOES NOT WORK!

    I don’t profess to know everything. Far from it. Yet, I’ve been listening to what Mr. Trump isn’t saying. He’s a very intelligent man.
    A person who has SOROS, the Republican & Democratic Party, the Koch Brothers, the “Bush Crime Family”, the Clinton Crime Family and many others running scared.
    In my opinion, he’s got enough dirt on just about every damn politician, and other criminals, out there. Remember, he’s had to “deal with” many of them, from around the world, in all aspects to build his hotels/gambling casinos! And anything else he’s been involved in.
    The one thing which really turned me toward him was when his son, Eric, daughter in law and his sister, a Federal Judge were threatened! That was the breaking point.

    Now it’s up to y’all! Do what’s in your heart and soul. As for me, I’ve made up my mind. I’ve decided!

    1. On same wavelength as you crazyelf. Did you see where I think it was in NYC Central Park, “someone” placed a large headstone with “TRUMP” engraved upon it? For “someone or somebodies” to be THAT afraid of -1- individual speaks volumes. Corruption hates the light shown upon it…and like you eloquently stated, I too have felt for a while that I am a man without any allegiance to any particular Political Party because they are indeed BOTH equally culpable for the mess we find ourselves in this great USA.
      The VA has been the ca$h cookie jar at the expense of Veterans without Veterans positively benefiting from same.
      I am of the firm belief that the Congressional Veteran Committees are also equally culpable (House and Senate) in not ruling these crooks with a firm hand and leash.

  4. Not until we get real statesmen/women in elected offices,( who aren’t in office but for their OWN greedy arses, ) the current corporate backed crooks will not hold their own butts accountable, so we need to vote en masse. The people have more power in their votes as I would think that our vets hold more power in their numbers. That’s what congressmen & senators need to hear by letters or calls should they not do their job for our vets..
    Non profits for the most part are jokes. They’re supposed to be for the good of the benefit & welfare of the people & like even hospitals & top universities, they garnering billions of tax dollars for their own agendas that have nothing to do with medical care or teaching education but going in many cases overseas to support other countries & their own wishes, which has nothing to do with helping Americans. I pray for the evil ( fraud, corruption, theft, maiming & killing, all for profit) to stop in the military govt, military, corporations & organizations. I pray for all of us, that God does answer our prayers. We all as Americans need our prayers answered ASAP.
    I’ve voted since 1964, all most all of the time, except for being ill, & it is truly about the only one time where I feel like my “voice” is heard.

  5. “When you sell your soul. It’s a one time thing. There’s no going back!” A ‘line’ from “Amerigeddon”. A film to be relased sometime in May 2016 by the son of Mr. Chuck Norris!

    This is what our countries “Elite Career Dinosaur Politicians” have done! They are reminiscent of the “Old World Royalty”!
    Two wars were hard fought to break the chains of an Oligarchy; ie: Our two Revolutionary Wars of 1776 & 1812!
    Are “We The People” willing to revert back to being “Ruled” by an alleged Royalty?
    Are “We The People” willing to give up the ideals many fought and died for during those wars?
    It’s time to make a decision!

    Your choice, no one can make it for y’all!

  6. When will we prosecute federal executives who knowingly violate the law?

    When Congress finally gets serious about overseeing the laws they pass. There is nothing else that will do it.

    Over the past 10 years or so, ignoring the law has become rather blatant. It was done prior to that during the Clinton years when a double standard seemed to appear where federal employees were prosecuted and/or fired for sexual harassment or sex on the job, but the standard for prosecution became much higher when it was asked, “well it depends on what the meaning of “is”, is.” Many other crimes committed since then were also ignored because nobody wanted to make the effort to do the right thing, and it has gotten worse.
    We had a national security advisor, Sandy Burglar smuggling classified documents out of the national archives because those documents made Clinton look bad after 911, and he was excused as sloppy and disorganized. Yes he was prosecuted, yes he lied to investigators, but he got a slap on the wrist $50k fine, community service and only lost his clearance for 3 years.
    From that point on it became a game among politicians over how well they could weasel word something. Go forward a few years and you have many in Congress making millions off of insider trading. Now we are at the point where a General is prosecuted with a slap on the wrist for sharing classified info, then Hillary sets up her private email server and may never be prosecuted, yet Congress continues to whistle away with theatrics rather than demanding the law be followed.

    As long as you have politicians of both stripes who have no problem with their cronies breaking the law while us lesser peons get hammered, you will see things like this sham go on.

    That it went on for over 20 years tells me Congress was well aware of it and looked the other way, once again ignoring those hurt or ripped off by the scam.

    You can bet your ass if it were a contractor in the Congressman’s district being short changed it would have been fixed long ago.

  7. I have been aiding injured workers & also vets with both problems being harmed or made sick at work. In the 30 years or so in doing this, I can honestly say that what goes on in this country’s govt comes from both sides of the aisle, both republican & democrat. Both sides cater to corporations who really are the king makers in both state & federal as well as in the military where some have made lots of money for themselves only.. We have here in Sacramento a former base that is run by an air force general. It was closed as an air force base in 2001. It is now called a business park. I didn’t know general’s of any one of our military installation’s that got to be a general of a business park.
    So, the privatizing ( corporations) is now in control with some big unions. Not all unions. & the only thing that comes out of privatizing is profit. usually 3 times the amount than what is done by govt or military. . And it is the same profit margin made just like the federal contractors did like those who fought along side our vets in the mideast wars.
    From what I’ve experienced is that nothing in our govt works or laws enforced from both sides. They cater to the corporations who pay to pave the way because IT IS the corporations WHO PAY law enforcement & govt TO conduct business, whatever way, the want and for they want.
    AND IF that means falsely accusing & charging someone of a crime & putting them in jail where they have to hire a criminal attorney to pay great amounts of money. then that is what is being done. BY OUR own law enforcement on innocent injured workers & vets are in fact paid to do this. SO, our country is not a democracy, It is whatever it is you call corporations running America & running OUR judicial system that crucifies innocent Americans and running our military that is mostly privatized.
    Our tax dollars is the most coveted prize & IS AS misused as any amount of money can be. It is up to the American people to get off their duffs & vote someone in who doesn’t sell to the highest bidder while we & our country continues to deteriorate & fall apart, all because of the global grand scheme of things. This was a concerted effort to diminish the American people, no matter who we are, citizens, vets, civilians for at least several decades.
    And it takes more than one political faction & more than one religious creed to destroy our American foundation and because there are people who call themselves Christian and they aren’t. They pretend to be just to get large favor for their own destructive agendas. Jut think, when this country start going down hill, well it was in the 70’s, 80’s. and it is all for profiting corporations, including the military.

    1. Call me a cynic but I would be very shocked if they provided such a list because am still thinking over time, $78 Million went into the pockets of those that KNEW all that time (decades) this was going on but did nothing.
      I can see it going something along the lines of a few years of various ‘committees’ and ‘studies’, to only state at end of it all…we spent that $78 Million trying to figure out where it went and where it was supposed to go.
      This also could be a ‘tossing the bone’ to Vets (only verbally) only for political reasons…it is election season.
      I noticed on Easter Sunday, the various news media had the heavier patriotic syrup out, because it’s a holiday, time to put a few Vets on the media chessboard…never mind all the crap that happens daily/weekly they ignore.

      1. You’re probably correct. Maybe we should get the hackers that got into the Ashley Madison site find the names 🙂

  8. I think that when the federal government allowed the United Federation of Government Emoloyees to form as the labor union that represents the employees of The People as a force to use against The People, that We The People need to decide that labor unions formed inside federal government are illegal.

    Until then, there is nothing that We The People can do about it. Nothing.

    1. Great idea! Adolph Hitler did just that! When he was done, there was absolutely no means to address grievances, let alone human rights, through any meaningful dialogue to impact change for the general good. The industrialists in Germany loved it…no Unions, no challenges to absolute authority. Obey or suffer the consequences, which are traditionally fatal for you or a member of your family.

      Sir, have you ever considered Union certification elections are held because individuals come to understand a need exists to ‘level the playing field’ of a mostly one-sided power arrangement where no one person has a voice but collectively, groups of people can change the conditions which ensure an individual cannot simply be marginalized, fired, or terminated without due and proper cause consistent with the principles established in the Constitution of the United States of America?

      So, just like Free Enterprise in Adam Smith’s “Wealth of Nations”, Collective Bargaining (aka Unions) tends to be an “invisible hand” in the marketplace. Just as ‘marketplace competition’ brought untold advantages to consumers through the “invisible hand” of competition, it is also the consumer who benefits most when collective bargaining “levels the playing field” to ensure all individuals enjoy the freedoms and liberties granted them in the Constitution. My case in point: The 40 hour standard work week. Did you have a Easter Weekend with your Family this past weekend? You likely did. You likely did not realize collective bargaining (aka Unionism) was the force behind the 40 hour standard work week (Fair Labor Standards Act). But then again, we tend to take for granted those trivial things we didn’t work for and earn ‘ourselves.’

      Society, like Physics is a matter of motion…for every action there is an opposite and equal reaction. It is natural and it cannot be avoided. It is called Democracy. When the pendulum swings too far to one side, an apex is reached and momentum drives the pendulum in an opposite direction at an equal pace…unless interrupted by some outside force.

      I leave it to you to interpret “unless interrupted by some outside force”.

      I too, wish there were no need for Unions. Until the circumstances (which give rise to Unions) cease to exist Unions will continue to exist. Like it or not, the laws of nature are non-negotiable: For every action, there is an opposite and equal reaction. Resolve the points of friction, the opposition will diminish.

      1. Just keep drinking salvos of that Kool-Aid drivel you have been made to believe. The Union is ONLY there because of the cash cookie jar of the VA and ONLY FOR VA employees….the “Veteran part of VA” has been all but forgotten and only dusted-off when it comes to manufacturing yet another false flag excuse or program under auspices of helping Vets but further fuels the corruption machine, greasing it’s gears.

        If President Reagan were in Office currently, we would have seen a repeat of what happened to the Air Traffic Controllers union strike and mass firing.
        You sound like one of the VA Rats sensing the ship is sinking in your vapid defense of same.
        However, you are correct in that every action requires or causes an equal reaction…we Veterans ARE that reaction to corruption. Enough is enough, as Vets are being placed in medical danger and then there’s that “Action” of 22 Veterans committing suicide each and every day….which is actually a REACTION to shitty care and a VA that cares more about its employees than the very Vets they are supposed to be there for.
        This of course requires a collective ACTION by Veterans and that thing is called Activism and as long as we are still breathing, the fight to make the VA be the very best VA it can be and more FOR Veterans will not cease.

    2. Dennis….That was very well said and very true ! Isn’t there an organization that can be formed by the military members that could help to fix this shit ???

  9. Ben, this is the tip of the iceberg. Servicemembers retired from active service due to permanent disabilities rendering them unfit for continued active duty are a protected class (at least in the eyes of Congress) and thus are somewhat immune to increases in TriCare prescription co-payments for medications that are prescribed to treat their service-connected disabilities…but…might want to check that co-payment fee next time you fill a prescription at a retail pharmacy (because you don’t live near a military treatment facility). I believe the sense of Congress is (or was) to limit co-payments charged to combat-disabled Servicemembers retired due to inability to be retained on Active duty status. Again, something written into law, but ignored by the DoD. Granted, the fees may be small (two dollars here, four dollars there for EACH prescription), but multiple EACH prescription TIMES the number of Servicemembers retired due to permanent disability TIMES the number of years each of the retired servicemembers will live after being determined to be unfit for continued military service and you begin to see quite a major dollar figure. It will only get worse as the Pentagon looks for more ways to achieve “Personnel Savings” knowing of course that medical costs are just one of the factors of engaging in a war. In a real sense, you can get blood from a turnip, if you know how to do it, and just keep it from Congressional Oversight.

  10. Ok, I’ve been waiting to have something come up, which would be close to the following blog! I believe this is it. Corruption has gone unabated for way to long in our “Constitutional Republic!”

    A few years ago, a man was sentenced to eight years for a “financial” thing he allegedly did. The charges were more likely false. Yet, the current administration felt it was their “duty” to “put him away!”
    Because of a movie he was involved in! The title;
    “Obama’s America: Unmaking the American Dream!”
    by; Dinesh D’Sousa

    He’s been called “The Frank Capra of the 21st century!”
    For those of you who are unaware of “Capra-ish Films”, does “Mr. Smith goes to Washington” (with James Stewart) or “Meet John Doe” (with Gary Cooper) ring a bell? Capra was “blacklisted” from Hollywood because of his “True Patriotic Conservative viewpoints” on the corruption in Washington.
    Both of these films show the corruption which is Washington D.C.!
    Mr. D’Sousa has been “taking on the political left” for some time now. He’s also taking on the “Liberal Universities and Colleges!” He’s been touring the country, explaining the terms “Liberal (Democrat)” & “Conservative (Republican)!”
    His next movie, due out July 2016, is aptly titled “2016, Hillary’s America!”
    It’s an unabashedly true history lesson concerning the Democratic Party! Their rise to power and their “no holds barred” ways in keeping their “POWER!”

    There’s also another film I’d like y’all to watch.
    titled; “GOD’S NOT DEAD”
    Instead of telling y’all about it. I’d like y’all to watch it. It’s definitely a “heart wrenching” true account of one students refusal to “denounce his Christian Faith”!
    When y’all watch, pay close attention at the end of the movie. Because there’s a long list of universities and colleges moving away from “God’s Word!” Basically telling students, there is NO GOD!
    Our country, whether one believes in God or not, was “founded on the Christian Faith!”

    This morning on Channel 27,
    “Breaking: Algebra is being removed from the curriculum!”
    Why? Because it HAS NO MEANING!
    How about that. I think we knew that decades ago!!!!

    1. D’ Sousa is a very good example of the double standard I mentioned above. I believe he was convicted of some kind of BS campaign finance violation, with much more blatant examples of campaign finance violations going on all around us.
      The ACORN organization that used to be is an example of using non-profit tax exempt status, but then participating in blatant political activities. Nobody was prosecuted for their illegal activities. Same with many other non-profits that engage in blatant political activity.
      The IRS targeting certain groups for their political activity is another example where zero prosecutions took place.

      I would think the VA Fiduciary program would be another place to look for blatant theft, but so far Congress is yawning.

  11. How about reclaiming that amount PLUS interest and forever cease gov’t. employee performance bonuses? That $78 Million went someplace but where? Audit?

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